Elephants are afraid of bees. Let that sink in for a second. The largest animal on land is so terrified of a tiny insect that it will flap its ears, stir up dust and make noises when it hears the buzz of a beehive. Of course a bee's stinger can't penetrate the thick hide of an elephant.
They hate ants.
Despite being the biggest land animals, elephants are frightened of one of the smallest! Although they could easily stomp them, elephants avoid ants because they can easily get into their trunks and wreak havoc on the sensitive nerve endings within.
In fact, some elephants don't even seem to mind mice crawling on their faces and trunks. Elephant experts will tell you that elephants have no reason to be afraid of mice. In fact, they'll tell you that healthy elephants don't fear any other animals, because of their size and lack of natural predators.
Theories abound that elephants are afraid of mice because the tiny creatures nibble on their feet or can climb up into their trunks. However, there's no evidence to back up either of those claims.
Elephants can get mad for a variety of reasons, just like humans get mad on bad days. For instance, they may have encountered poachers in their last human interaction- and that could influence their behavior. They could also be hungry, hurt or scared. You definitely don't want to spook an elephant!
Researchers believe elephants' good memories are a big part of how elephants survive and why so many live so long (50 to 60 years or more on average). Those who work closely with elephants also have noticed that elephants remember injuries and can hold grudges against those who have hurt them.
They know envy and jealousy, can throw tantrums and harbour grudges about a perceived injustice, just like human children. And just like human children, they can be competitive for rank and status amongst their peers.
Elephants, regardless of how big they are, are also startled by things that move by them fast, like mice. According to elephant behavior experts, they would be scared of anything moving around their feet regardless of it's size.. Elephants are not alone in their fear of mice and other rodent like creatures.
Lion will usually avoid adult elephant, and attack youngsters only if they have become separated from the herd. However, some prides have learned how to take down full-grown adults under dire circumstances when other food sources are scarce.
“We noticed that the elephants were more scared of tigers than of leopards,” says Vivek Thuppil, who carried out the work with Richard Coss, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, as part of his PhD in animal behavior.
Aside from humans, lions are the only predators powerful enough to kill an elephant. The males, being 50% heavier than the females, are especially suited to the task. It typically takes seven lionesses to kill an elephant, but just two males could do the same.
They say elephants never forget, but their brainpower does not stop there.
Because male lions are more likely to attack. (See: "Older Elephants Know the Best Anti-Lion Moves.") Not many predators can take down an elephant, so it's useful for the massive mammals to know when it's worth their effort to run away.
Scientists from the University of St Andrews and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in Nairobi conducted field experiments which have shown that the elephants base their distrust of the Maasai on the colour of their traditional clothing - red - and their body scent.
These giants are herd-oriented and always on the lookout to protect members of their unit. As a result of their heavy build, it's easy to attribute aggression and hostility to elephants. However, like any other creature, elephants get upset and, when in danger, defend themselves with the tools evolution gave to them.
Elephants have been shown to increase their distance moved in response to the playback of the acoustic sound of bees, human voices, tiger growls and elephant alarm rumbles [4,20–22,32], as well as an increased number of tourist vehicles [34].
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An unarmed human could not win a fight against an elephant.
Simply put, the elephant is too large and powerful for a human to harm without a weapon. If the elephant regards the person as a threat, it will charge, gore, and stomp on the person until they're dead.
In an elephant vs hippo fight, the elephant is going to win. Assuming both creatures are fully grown adults, the elephant is just too big for the hippo to handle. Hippos are too smart to pick a fight with an elephant, so they have no idea what it takes to bring one down.
The elephants are scared to come near the rotating LED lights that throw up bright colours. We have found elephants making loud sounds and retreating quickly on seeing them,” he said.
Roman author and teacher Aelian confirmed that elephants were frightened by squealing pigs and rams with horns, and reported that the Romans exploited both squealing pigs and horned rams to repel the war elephants of Pyrrhus in 275 BCE.
But the behemoths are terrified of African bees, and with good reason. An angry swarm can sting elephants around their eyes and inside their trunks and pierce the skin of young calves.
Eventually, the elephants make a run towards each other, screaming and trumpeting the whole time. When they finally make contact, they form a loud, rumbling mass of flapping ears, clicked tusks and entwined trunks.
While this may look superficially like emotional "crying", it occurs simply because elephants have lost the normal mammalian structures that drain excess moisture away from their eyes; without a true lacrimal structure, elephants are physically unable to produce emotional tears.